Interested in this AI/ML Engineer role at The Lonely Entrepreneur?
Apply Now →Skills & Technologies
About This Role
AI\-Driven Performance Marketing \& Growth Manager
Google Ads \| AI Search \| Funnel Optimization \| HubSpot
Remote \| Full\-Time or Consultant
The Lonely Entrepreneur – www.lonelyentrepreneur.com
GENERAL
We are only looking for people who pursue excellence and expect excellence from their teammates. If you are comfortable with average, this is not the role for you.
The Lonely Entrepreneur is looking for a high\-level performance marketing leader who can drive customer acquisition and revenue through modern digital channels — particularly Google Ads, AI\-driven search behavior, and conversion funnel optimization.
This is not a traditional PPC role.
We are looking for someone who understands how AI is changing search, advertising, and customer acquisition, and who can build a modern growth engine across paid search, landing page optimization, and lifecycle marketing.
We are considering both full\-time employees and experienced consultants.
ABOUT THE LONELY ENTREPRENEUR
The Lonely Entrepreneur helps founders turn the struggle of entrepreneurship into success by giving them one place to go for answers.
Our solutions include:
Sidekick Consulting (Primary Focus)
Sidekick provides one\-on\-one strategic support for entrepreneurs and CEOs, helping them navigate the most difficult challenges of growing a business.
Sidekick works directly with founders on issues such as:
- scaling their company
- leadership and team challenges
- cash flow and operational issues
- growth strategy and decision\-making
Generating high\-quality leads for Sidekick consulting is the primary focus of this role.
The Lonely Entrepreneur Learning Community
A SaaS platform that provides entrepreneurs with the knowledge, tools, and support to start and grow their businesses.
Members gain access to:
- 2,000\+ learning modules on business and personal challenges founders face
- Hundreds of templates and vetted vendor resources
- Coaching and peer community
- Funding opportunities
- Vendor deals and tools
Additional Offerings
- Entrepreneur Survival Guide – a structured framework for navigating entrepreneurship
- Content, tools, and resources designed to help founders at every stage
Learn more:
https://lonelyentrepreneur.com
Video overview:
https://youtu.be/4fEH2dJFKpM
ROLE OVERVIEW
We are hiring an AI\-Driven Performance Marketing \& Growth Manager responsible for building and optimizing our digital acquisition engine, with a primary focus on generating qualified consulting leads for Sidekick.
This role will lead the strategy and execution across:
- Google Ads
- AI\-driven search targeting
- landing page optimization
- conversion funnels
- HubSpot marketing automation
The goal of the role is simple:
Generate high\-quality leads that convert into consulting engagements and Learning Community members.
You will own the entire digital acquisition funnel — from search intent to conversion.
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE
A successful candidate will:
- Build high\-intent Google Ads campaigns targeting entrepreneurs searching for help solving real business problems
- Identify search opportunities driven by AI\-based queries and long\-tail search behavior
- Improve landing page conversion rates and lead quality
- Build automated nurture funnels inside HubSpot
- Create a scalable growth engine that continuously brings entrepreneurs into the ecosystem
This role will be measured by:
- qualified consulting leads generated
- cost per lead
- conversion rates
- revenue generated from digital channels
KEY RESPONSIBILITIESPerformance Marketing
Lead and optimize paid acquisition campaigns including:
- Google Search campaigns
- Performance Max campaigns
- high\-intent keyword targeting
- conversion tracking and attribution
Continuously test new messaging, creative, and campaign structures to improve performance.
AI\-Driven Search Strategy
Identify emerging search behavior and high\-intent queries from entrepreneurs searching for solutions.
Develop strategies around:
- problem\-based search queries
- long\-tail founder questions
- intent\-driven keyword clusters
Use AI tools to generate and test ad copy variations and campaign strategies.
Conversion Funnel Optimization
Design and optimize the entire digital funnel:
- landing pages
- lead capture
- booking flows for consulting calls
- conversion experiments
Continuously improve conversion rates and lead quality.
HubSpot Lifecycle Marketing
Own HubSpot marketing automation including:
- lead segmentation
- lifecycle workflows
- nurture campaigns
- onboarding sequences
Build automated systems that move prospects from awareness to conversion.
Analytics \& Attribution
Build dashboards and reporting to analyze:
- cost per lead
- cost per acquisition
- funnel performance
- campaign ROI
Identify new growth opportunities through data analysis.
REQUIRED EXPERIENCE
- 5\+ years of experience in performance marketing or growth marketing
- Proven experience managing Google Ads campaigns that generate measurable revenue
- Strong experience with HubSpot marketing automation and CRM workflows
- Deep understanding of digital funnels and conversion optimization
- Experience identifying high\-intent search opportunities
PREFERRED EXPERIENCE
- Experience marketing consulting services or high\-ticket offerings
- Experience marketing SaaS platforms or subscription communities
- Strong background in SEO and content\-driven growth
- Familiarity with WordPress and landing page optimization tools
SKILLS \& TRAITS
- Data\-driven decision maker
- Strategic thinker who can also execute
- Comfortable working in entrepreneurial environments
- Strong analytical and problem\-solving ability
- Excellent communicator and collaborator
COMPENSATION
We are considering both employees and consultants.
Consultant compensation:
$3,000 – $7,000 per month depending on experience and scope.
Full\-time compensation will be competitive based on experience.
ABOUT THE LONELY ENTREPRENEUR
The Lonely Entrepreneur is a one\-stop shop for entrepreneurs that helps them turn the struggle into success.
To learn more visit:
www.lonelyentrepreneur.com
Pay: $3,000\.00 \- $5,000\.00 per month
Benefits:
- Flexible schedule
Work Location: Remote
Salary Context
This $36K-$60K range is in the lower quartile for AI/ML Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $100K across 15465 roles with salary data).
View full AI/ML Engineer salary data →Role Details
About This Role
AI/ML Engineers build and deploy machine learning models in production. They work across the full ML lifecycle: data pipelines, model training, evaluation, and serving infrastructure. The role has evolved significantly over the past two years. Where ML Engineers once spent most of their time on model architecture, the job now tilts heavily toward inference optimization, cost management, and integrating LLM capabilities into existing systems. Companies want engineers who can ship production systems, and the experimenter-only role is fading fast.
Day-to-day, you're writing training pipelines, debugging data quality issues, setting up evaluation frameworks, and figuring out why your model performs differently in staging than it did on your dev set. The best ML engineers are obsessive about reproducibility and measurement. They instrument everything. They know that a model is only as good as the data feeding it and the infrastructure serving it.
Across the 26,159 AI roles we're tracking, AI/ML Engineer positions make up 91% of the market. At The Lonely Entrepreneur, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week might include: debugging a data pipeline that's silently dropping 3% of training examples, running A/B tests on a new model version, writing documentation for a feature flag system that lets you roll back model deployments, and reviewing a junior engineer's PR for a new evaluation metric. Meetings tend to be cross-functional since ML touches product, engineering, and data teams.
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
Skills Required
Python and PyTorch dominate the requirements. Most roles expect experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and familiarity with ML frameworks like TensorFlow or JAX. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) has become a top-3 skill requirement as companies integrate LLMs into their products. Docker and Kubernetes show up in about a third of postings, reflecting the production focus of the role.
Beyond the core stack, employers increasingly want experience with experiment tracking tools (MLflow, Weights & Biases), feature stores, and vector databases. Fine-tuning experience is valuable but less common than you'd think from reading Twitter. Most production LLM work is RAG and prompt engineering, not fine-tuning. If you have both, you're in a strong position.
Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.
Compensation Benchmarks
AI/ML Engineer roles pay a median of $166,983 based on 13,781 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $131,300. This role's midpoint ($48K) sits 71% below the category median. Disclosed range: $36K to $60K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $184,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $244,000. The 90th percentile reaches $309,400. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Engineering Manager ($293,500) and AI Architect ($292,900). By seniority level: Entry: $76,880; Mid: $131,300; Senior: $227,400; Director: $244,288; VP: $234,620.
The Lonely Entrepreneur AI Hiring
The Lonely Entrepreneur has 1 open AI role right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer. Based in Remote, US. Compensation range: $60K - $60K.
Remote Work Context
Remote AI roles pay a median of $156,000 across 1,221 positions. About 7% of all AI roles offer remote work.
Career Path
Common paths into AI/ML Engineer roles include Data Scientist, Software Engineer, Research Engineer.
From here, career progression typically leads toward ML Architect, AI Engineering Manager, Principal ML Engineer.
The fastest path into ML engineering is through software engineering with a self-directed ML education. A CS degree helps, but production engineering skills matter more than academic credentials. Build something that works, deploy it, and measure it. That portfolio project is worth more than a Coursera certificate. For career growth, the fork comes around the senior level: go deep on technical complexity (staff/principal track) or move into managing ML teams.
What to Expect in Interviews
Expect system design questions around ML pipelines: how you'd build a training pipeline for a specific use case, handle data drift, or design A/B testing infrastructure for model deployments. Coding rounds typically involve Python, with emphasis on data manipulation (pandas, numpy) and algorithm implementation. Take-home assignments often ask you to build an end-to-end ML pipeline from raw data to deployed model.
When evaluating opportunities: Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 26,159 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 2,416 entry-level, 16,247 mid-level, 5,153 senior, and 2,343 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 7% of the market (1,863 positions). The remaining 24,200 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $184,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $244,000. The 90th percentile reaches $309,400. Highest-paying categories: AI Engineering Manager ($293,500 median, 28 roles); AI Architect ($292,900 median, 108 roles); AI Safety ($274,200 median, 19 roles).
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 26,159 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (23,752), AI Software Engineer (598), AI Product Manager (594). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (2,416) are outnumbered by mid-level (16,247) and senior (5,153) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 2,343 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 7% of all AI roles (1,863 positions), with 24,200 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $184,000. Top-quartile roles start at $244,000, and the 90th percentile reaches $309,400. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Engineering Manager roles lead at $293,500 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $122,200. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Rag (16,749 postings), Aws (8,932 postings), Rust (7,660 postings), Python (3,815 postings), Azure (2,678 postings), Gcp (2,247 postings), Prompt Engineering (1,469 postings), Openai (1,269 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
Get Weekly AI Career Intelligence
Salary data, skills demand, and market signals from 16,000+ AI job postings. Every Monday.